Pentagon

by Allen Drury

On a distant South Pacific isle, an international incident threatening America's security suddenly explodes, and the president and his top advisers are drawn into its vortex

Genres: Literature, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

In late 1943, Allen Stuart Drury, a 25-year old Army veteran, sought work. A position as the Senate correspondent for United Press International provided him with employment and insider knowledge of the Senate. In addition to fulfilling his duties as a reporter, he kept a journal of his views of the Senate and individual senators. In addition to the Senate personalities, his journal captured the events of the 78th & 79th Congresses.
Although written in the mid-1940s, his diary was not published until 1963. "A Senate Journal" found an audience in part because of the great success of "Advise and Consent," his novel in 1959 about the consideration in the Senate of a controversial nominee for secretary of state. His greatest success was "Advise and Consent," was made into a film in 1962. The book was partly inspired by the suicide of Lester C. Hunt, senator from Wyoming. It spent 102 weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list. 'Advise & Consent' led to several sequels. 'A Shade of Difference' is set a year later. Drury then turned his attention to the next presidential election after those events with 'Capable of Honor' & 'Preserve & Protect'. He then wrote two alternative sequels based on a different outcome of an assassination attack in an earlier work: 'Come Nineveh, Come Tyre' & 'The Promise of Joy'. In 1971, he published 'The Throne of Saturn', a sf novel about the 1st attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars. He dedicated the work "To the US Astronauts & those who help them fly." Political characters in the book are archetypal rather than comfortably human. The book carries a strong anti-communist flavor. The book has a lot to say about interference in the space program by leftist Americans. Having wrapped up his political series by '75, Drury began a new one with the '77 novel 'Anna Hastings', more about journalism than politics. He returned to the timeline in '79, with the political novel 'Mark Coffin USS' (tho the main relationship between the two books was that Hastings was a minor character in 'Mark Coffin USS's sequels). It was succeeded, by the two-part 'The Hill of Summer' & 'The Roads of Earth', which are true sequels to 'Mark Coffin USS' He also wrote stand-alone novels, 'Decision' & 'Pentagon', as well as several other fiction & non-fiction works. His political novels have been described as page-turners, set against the Cold War, with an aggressive USSR seeking to undermine the USA. Drury lived in Tiburon, CA from '64 until his '98 cardiac arrest. He'd completed his 20th novel, 'Public Men' set at Stanford, just two weeks before his death. He died on 9/2/98 at St Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, on his 80th birthday. He never married.--Wikipedia (edited)

Reviews

[Chris Gleck]

This book was published in 1986, and I acquired it used somewhere along the way. I had read Advise and Consent by the author in high school and a movie was made of that book in the 60s which I also saw at some point. I am sure I picked up this book because of familiarity with the previous work. the author was a reporter as well as a political fiction writer. This book was frustrating to read because the first half of the book moved slowly, which I believe was intentional on the part of the author. This book is sympathetic but also highly critical of the Pentagon due to its slowness, bureaucracy, rivalries and system of doing things which interferes with it being an effective organization during crises. This book created a minor crisis, and while the main characters were well-intentioned and sympathetic, the outcome was not optimal although not critical either. On the whole it provided interesting insight into the Pentagon, which I believe has probably not reformed itself in the intervening 35+ years, as well as interesting reading even though it also was frustrating. I am passing this book onto Clay who has an interest in this subject before donating it.

[Allie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very boring book. It is about bureaucracy. Who thought that would be a compelling read? Not me. Two pages of action and 596 of words. Also, no climax. Do not recommend.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far - page 76 - skipping entire pages because he tries to introduce every character in two chapters. He's got characteristics and how Washington operates down pat so far but OMG let me meet these people as the storyline develops.

Page 130 - Please - the Soviets use some odd weapon system on an island in the south pacific and the White House lets the joint chiefs argue that each of them gets a piece of the action AND equipment modifications before anything happens? A month later is the due date for any action whatsoever?

Later - seventy unending pages and "it had literally put me to sleep" later - I was annoyed by virtually all of the characters and the ones I might care about entered the picture so infrequently I skipped to the middle of the book and skimmed.

No wonder I couldn't read this is the nineties when I first got it. I just don't remember why anymore because I must have been too bored even back then and too disgusted by the inept storytelling. Coming from an old Army reserve wife and Air Force mom that's saying something

It could have been a great book since it's got an excellent premise.

Since it's a hardback I'm going to make book-art out of it. Try not to have a fit, book-lovers, when you see altered books. Some books - well - this is the kindest thing one can do to them.
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/alteredbo...

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't stand his style where entire pages go by with sentence fragments joined together by ellipses, but I do have a weakness for the old-fashioned Cold War political intrigue novels. I remember loving Advise and Consent, which I read in high school (not in school, just at that age), but I don't know if I'm going to make it through this one. The action has started, so now I'm just waiting to see if it's going to produce something interesting or if I return it to the library unfinished.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Allen Drury and I never saw eye to eye politically. Most of the time, I could overlook his somewhat blatant bias. This time, I couldn't.